Monday, 7 November 2011

My letter to the Liverpool Echo

The author of the letter “Respect the BNP” (ECHO Nov1) asks whether David Cameron would have got the same reception as Nick Griffin if he had held his party conference in Liverpool.

Perhaps he should remember that when the Tories held their conference in Manchester, they got a fair larger opposition – including many people from Liverpool – marching against them. The Lib Dems and Labour have also had protests against their conferences this year, so the BNP have no reason to feel singled out.

I won’t speak for Joe Anderson’s motives, as he came down independently, but Liverpool Antifascists demonstrated outside the BNP conference because they are a fascist party. Their history is one of street violence and political intimidation and one of their most prominent Liverpool activists – Peter Tierney – has a recent conviction for assault. At a time when workers are under assault from the government, the BNP offer only division, bigotry and violence, and the people of Liverpool have shown more than once that they are not welcome in our city.